Homily for Sunday, October 28

Readings for Sunday, October 28 / 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time: Jeremiah 31:7-9  |  Psalm 126  |  Hebrews 5:1-6  |  Mark 10:46-52

Fall short though we may, the Lord is always patient with us and continues to invite us into his saving work.

Do you love me?

Readings for Sunday, June 29: Solemnity of Sts. Peter & Paul:
(Vigil readings, since they are used in homily)

Acts 3:1-10
Psalm 19:2-5
Galatians 1:11-20
John 21:15-19

This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. Usually saints’ feast days are separate because they mark the anniversary of the death of that particular person, but this is not the case with these two great missionaries. They are placed side by side because their individual paths took them to the Eternal City of Rome, where they were each martyred for the faith – Peter, crucified upside-down because he didn’t think he was worthy enough to die in the same manner as Christ; Paul, a Roman citizen, was shown mercy and simply beheaded. They became disciples in very different ways, preached to separate peoples, took different missionary paths, and lived very different lives. And yet they came to receive the same martyr’s crown, as the Preface for Mass tells us today. These men are a sort of microcosm of the Church in their unity and diversity.

At our baptism, every single one of us received a candle from the minister as the words were spoken, “Receive the Light of Christ.” That symbolic gesture is a reality that we have all been enlightened by the Lord Jesus Christ and as such, we are supposed to be the light of Christ in the midst of the world that so often is full of darkness. By the simple fact that we call ourselves Christians – we literally bear the name of Jesus! – we must then live the example that Jesus set. We must be a people of love who seek to serve the poor and draw all people to the loving embrace of the Heavenly Father in the joy of eternal life that is to come. This was Jesus’ mission and it is ours. This is where we are united. We are all members of the same Body and all have the same goal. The difference is that we all are called to do this in different ways. This we can look at in three points.

First – we must all be a people of prayer. If we are not a people of prayer, we are not a people of God because prayer is relationship with the Lord. We must pray and we must pray in the way that fits our personality and spirituality. The beauty of the Church is the wide variety of styles of prayer that rest within her and so it is for us each to find that way that permits our hearts to encounter Jesus and to dive deeply into that place. Our prayer cannot be something that just happens on Sunday or even just a few days a week. It must be daily, even if only for a few minutes. If we commit to a few minutes then eventually we will want more time and will ache for the time of prayer when it is taken away by busy schedules or life’s demands. That’s when we know we are really praying with the Lord.

Second – we must use what we have. In the Vigil readings we heard the story from the book of Acts where Peter and John were going to the Temple (they were men of prayer!) and along the way they encounter a man at the gate who couldn’t walk. Peter goes to Him and says, “I have neither gold nor silver, but what I have I give. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise and walk.” And he did. There is a temptation sometimes in the spiritual life to think that because we don’t have this or that person’s gifts we aren’t useful. That because we aren’t as ‘holy’ as some other person or that we aren’t ‘worthy’ of some specific task that we shouldn’t do it. We can think to ourselves ‘one day, when my relationship with Jesus is better I can do that, but not today’. When we do these things we cut off the work that God has in store for us to do. We limit the God of all creation. The truth is that none of us is ever holy enough, worthy enough to do God’s work. But that doesn’t mean we aren’t called to it.

The Gospel passage from the Vigil was the story of Peter and Jesus that we all know – how Jesus asks three times “Do you love me?” and Peter responds three times, “Lord, you know that I love you.” The problem with that passage for us is that that there are two different words employed for the concept of love. The same as I can say I love pizza and I love Jesus with two different meanings, the original Greek text uses two different words entirely: agapao and phileo. Jesus asks, ‘Do you love me?’ using agapao - in a sacrificial, self-giving sort of way. Peter responds, ‘Lord, you know that I love you.’ – using phileo – in a fraternal way. Jesus asks again employing ‘agapao’ and Peter again responds with ‘phileo’. The third time Jesus says ‘Do you love me?’ – using ‘phileo’. He basically says, ‘You don’t love me enough to be sacrificial yet, but do you at least love me like a brother, like a close friend?’ And Peter says ‘Yes, Lord, you know that I love you’ – using ‘phileo’ a third time. Peter recognizes that while he loves the Lord, it is not yet at the level that Christ desires. And yet, what happens? We hear the Lord continue, saying, ‘When you were younger you dressed yourself and did as you pleased, but one day you will have someone else dress you and lead you where you don’t want to go.’ He love Peter where he is and then assures him that one day he will be able to love in the sacrificial ‘agapao’ way that Christ desires. And then He simply says, “Follow me.”

Follow me...

Our life is not about getting our act together and becoming perfect people and then following Jesus. It’s about accepting ourselves wherever we are and placing ourselves at the feet of Jesus, know that, like Peter, we aren’t able to love Him as much as He wants but that we are willing to at least follow after Him and try to learn. That’s what Jesus desires, our willingness to be used in whatever place we are today. It’s not that God will work great miracles when we become holy people. It’s that God will work great miracles through each and every one of us and that will make us into holy people.

This leads me to the last point – being ready to act. Peter and John were simply on their way to the Temple and the Spirit moved them to approach and heal the individual at the gate. How often does God speak to us in our daily lives? He’s certainly speaking; maybe we just don’t hear Him because our lives are too noisy to hear the still, small voice. For instance, have you every had that feeling that you can’t explain that you just have to do something different? The other day I was driving home from the office and I drove past someone’s house and I felt this something on my heart saying that I should stop in and visit them. I made some excuse of needing to get back and kept on going. When I arrived home, guess who had just left me a voicemail for me at the rectory asking me to come by? The person whose house I had just driven by! I know from personal experience and from stories of others the ways that the Spirit can work when in the midst of our daily lives we have that something urging us to take a different way home, to linger for a few minutes in a particular place for some unknown reason, to speak to someone or to offer a prayer for someone who happens to be on your mind. These are the ways that miracles happen and lives are changed more often than not.

Peter didn’t try to be Paul, Paul didn’t try to be Peter, and we don’t have to try to be anyone other than the person God created us to be. It is our particular strengths and weaknesses that God created specifically in us and wants to work through to speak to the world seeking His voice. Through the intercession of Saints Peter and Paul, may we today set ourselves at the feet of Jesus and open ourselves to being instruments in His hands to accomplish whatever works He desires. God grant us this grace and the strength to carry it out each and every day!

UNITY and YOU

Readings for Sunday, June 8/ Pentecost Sunday:
Acts 2:1-11
Psalm 104: 1, 24, 29-31, 34
1 Corinthians 12:3-7, 12-13
John 20:19-23

Today we gather to celebrate a feast that has roots dating back well over 3000 years. That’s right 3000. We often forget that our Catholic faith didn’t just spring up out of nowhere but instead is firmly rooted in – and is the fulfillment of – the Jewish faith until the time of Christ. Our architecture, worship, teachings, are all intimately tied together. In Jewish life Pentecost was a day that God marked out seven weeks after Passover (50 days is what Pentecost indicates) for the people to turn to Him in thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth that had grown in the recent weeks. In like style, our Christian faith also turns to God 50 days after the New Passover of Easter and gives thanks to God once more, not for earthly fruits but for the fruit of the Holy Spirit who has made His dwelling among us.

In liturgical observance, we often think that the two most important feasts of the year are Christmas and Easter, but the truth is that Pentecost is more important that Christmas. It makes sense that Easter is first in rank because that is the day when Jesus conquered sin and death and opened the gates of Heaven for us. Without Easter, we all go to Hell. That’s why we sing ALLELUIA just about every other word during the Easter Vigil and all throughout the Easter season. But as we know, things didn’t just stop at Easter. The Lord Ascended into Heavenly glory, which we celebrated last weekend, and sent among us the gift of the Holy Spirit. What would have happened, you think, if Jesus gave us the great commission to baptize the nations and teach them to do all He had commanded and didn’t give us any help in carrying it out? I bet the gates of hell would have prevailed against the Church before Peter had every stepped foot out of the upper room! Without the Holy Spirit coming to us, we are as good as dead. We have no hope of doing anything good or holy because we wouldn’t have He who is holiness itself in our hearts. Pentecost means we are not alone. God is with us! Even in our very heart!

The fact that the Spirit is with us means that we are now able to carry out the mission begun by Jesus. That mission was basically to draw all of humanity to the Father. Jesus is like a big magnet who seeks to draw all people to Himself and hoist us up into the Trinitarian embrace of Love; it was about uniting us all together and going as one body to God the Father.

In the Vigil Mass yesterday we heard recounted the story of Babel from Genesis; that ancient story that explains the division of peoples. The story explains that everyone initially spoke the same language and in their pride they sought to make a name for themselves, saying, “otherwise we shall be scattered over all the earth.” They relied upon themselves rather than trusting that God wanted to do great things for them if they were humble. It was pride. Adam and Eve were the first but certainly not the last to commit it. And because they relied upon themselves rather than the Lord, they were made to speak different languages and scattered over all the earth, just as they had sought to avoid. Sin and self-seeking sows division.

In our first reading today we hear in the Acts of the Apostles that the disciples were gathered together in one place. This is significant because during the Passion of Christ they were all scattered and went their own way. But as they began to reflect afterward, they began thinking about the Lord and the promises that He had made and each began to come back to that place where Christ wanted to show them His power. They focused not on themselves but on God and were naturally drawn into union – all in the same place.

So if the mission of Jesus was to bring about unity in the world and to bring us together as one body before the Father, how are we doing? What ways are you and I actively promoting unity in our community and in the larger Church?

I can think of three ways to help us in this task: conversion of heart, thinking in the plural, and highlighting the good.

In the Gospel we just heard the Lord Jesus gave the power to forgive sins to the disciples. This was the first thing He did after the Resurrection, so that means it is of the utmost importance. Are we taking advantage of that gift? In order to build up unity and draw others to God, we must first be drawn to Him ourselves. Christ is calling us to come to reconciliation and experience the forgiveness of sins that takes away all barriers between us and the Lord and makes us conduits of grace for Him to work to reach others. A practical schedule that all of us ought to keep is to make a good confession at least once a month, to attend Mass at least once a week, and to spend time in prayer at least once a day. It is easy to find reasons not to do those things in that schedule, but if you do, you won’t regret it.

The second step is thinking in the plural. Our first step is to encounter Jesus and have the ‘me & Jesus’ moment that continually changes our hearts, but we cannot stop there. If my whole spiritual journey is ‘me & Jesus’ then our journey will end not at the pearly gates but the fire pit because our faith necessary requires us to reach out to others. ‘Whatever you do for the least of these you do to me’ means that we have to think of others and put the needs of others before our own sometimes. The perfect prayer given by Jesus reminds us of that same fact in that it begins ‘OUR Father’. We have to think not I/Me/My but Us/We/Ours and to do our best to work for the good of all and not just what benefits us most in the moment.

The third thing is to highlight the good. A couple of years ago Fr. Ronal Knott gave our continuing education conference for the priests and he was talking about factions and rifts among clergy and how easy it is to talk bad about other priests. He then challenged us not simply to avoid bad-mouthing brother priests, but to actually do some good-mouthing. That struck me because 1) is good-mouthing even a word?! And 2) how difficult is it to say something positive about others who you may not like?! All of us are members of the Body of Christ and have spiritual gifts and strengths, and even those who aren’t part of the Body of Christ yet still have some gift that builds up the world around them. Are we willing not just to avoid saying bad but to actually emphasize good things about others? To point out places where we agree rather than disagree? To list strengths and improvements instead of weaknesses and failures? We are all part of the same Body. Why not rejoice in the good that each part does and so spur the whole body forward to the glory that awaits us?

To celebrate Pentecost is not just to recall an event that happened 2000 years ago. It is to realize that the Spirit lives in us even today and seeks to continue the saving mission of Jesus in uniting all people to the Father. We have a mission and, thanks be to God, we have the gift of the Spirit to strengthen us in it. So let us thank the Lord for His love shown to us and to pray that we might be drawn ever more closely to God and many others with us.

HWP: St. Thomas the Apostle

Today is the feast of the Glorious Apostle and Martyr of the faith, St. Thomas. Though he is often called 'Doubting Thomas' for his lack of belief in the words of his fellow Apostles, his faith led him to preach the Gospel in India, where he ultimately laid down his life for Christ. From his need to see the wounds of Jesus we too are permitted to express faith in the truth that the Crucified Lord was raised for our salvation. 

Prayer to St. Thomas the Apostle

O Glorious Saint Thomas, your grief for Jesus was such that it would not let you believe he had risen unless you actually saw him and touched his wounds. But your love for Jesus was equally great and it led you to give up your life for him. Pray for us that we may grieve for our sins which were the cause of Christ's sufferings. Help us to spend ourselves in his service and so earn the title of "blessed" which Jesus applied to those who would believe in him without seeing him. Amen.